SOURCE: Patterson, J. Daniel. “Gods Determinations: The Occasion, the Audience, and Taylor's Hope for New England.” Early American Literature 22, no. 1 (spring 1987): 63-81.

In the following essay, Patterson studies the intended audiences for the poem Gods Determinations, contending that Taylor was addressing two distinct groups within his New England congregation.

Edward Taylor composed Gods Determinations at a time of crisis in New England Congregationalism. The “Half-Way” Synod of 1662 had tried to resolve the problem of declining memberships by extending baptism and church discipline to all the children of the Covenant, specifically including those whose parents had not experienced saving faith. In spite of some protracted resistance, the practical necessity of extended baptism persuaded most congregations in Massachusetts and Connecticut to adopt the Half-Way Covenant by the mid 1670s (Pope 125, 272). Even with the general acceptance of extended baptism, however, New England's clergy continued to perceive an urgent need for new...